Introduction
The list of basic emotions remains contentious to date. This is because while in everyday life people consider romantic love to be part of the list of basic emotions, theoretical researchers continue to classify it as a non-basic emotion. However, there is a need for further empirical studies to verify whether it is a basic emotion or not because current research on this subject does not conclude on this matter. Love is described as a particular element of personal relationships or even a particular emotion that a person could be feeling towards another. Romantic love is considered ever-present and has a critical impact on people’s lives. This is because it is made up of attachment and infatuations (Allen, 2007).
Infatuation is an attraction or passionate love that is concerned with the amorous and overwhelming feeling for a special person, whereas compassionate love mirrors the comforting feeling of emotional bonding with another person. Therefore, it is critical to realize that attachment and infatuation are separate but not reciprocally exclusive (Bookwala and Crote, 2009).
Most emotional theorists list love as a non-basic emotion citing the fact that it is characterized by plots rather than emotions. Its plots such as infatuation, grief, and jealousy involve certain kinds of situations and roles as well as more than one person. Jealousy involves at least three people while grief and infatuation involve two. In Ekman’s perception, an experience that involves this kind of social context cannot be classified as a basic emotion (Ekman, 2011). This paper holds that Ekman’s argument is invalid because, in spite of his contentions, he went ahead to classify contempt as a basic emotion. However, contempt entails a script and at least two people where one person makes a judgment or looks down at the other.
In perceiving romantic love in light of its attachment tenets, it is complex in nature. Many scientists have echoed this statement as they considered removing it from their list of basic emotions. In the everyday itinerary of its operations, the attachment cognitive behaviour produces a host of emotions; for instance, grief, surges of love, loneliness, separation, jealousy, anxiety, and anger. Perceived from this angle love seems to have more than one emotion (Robin, 2010).
However, in the opinion of this paper, romantic love by virtue of being a plot is not unusual. This is because fear, anger, and sadness also involve plots and at times these plots are associated with attachment. Romantic love can be said to be unusual since it is deeply entangled with attachment and caregiving. If the ethological and neurological foundations of love are ever to be comprehended, the phenomenon of attachment will have to be explained in the process.
Basic Emotions
Basic emotions are believed to be characterized by evolutionary neurobiological substrates. The evolutionary basis triggers a feeling element and the capacity for meaningful behavioural actions (Ekman and Ellsworth, 2011). In their interactions with a person’s cognitions and experiences, they generate various idiosyncratic and complex emotional experiences. While complex sentimental reactions can be comprehended in the form of more essential elements, it is not possible to speak the same of basic emotions. This means that basic emotions are non-reducible and thus basic (Ekman and Ellsworth, 2011). Therefore, theorists argue that most emotions experienced by adults are not simple in nature. The content that basic emotions are short in duration, few in number, and relatively infrequent.
The Need to Do an Empirical Study to Answer This Question
The reason why it is critical to do a scientific study and verify whether or not romantic love is a basic emotion is that many studies done in this area indicate that people experience romantic love in several instances in their lifetime; however, they do not conclude on whether it is a basic emotion or not. Romantic love is usually accompanied by a set of physical, cognitive, and behavioural symptoms and it ends up affecting peoples’ lives by a great deal. People are often more than willing to change their manners of dressing, religions, hobbies, countries, jobs, and friends to be with their loved ones. The high frequency of romantic love and its wide ranging impact on peoples’ lives calls for an intensive study to verify if it’s a basic emotion or not (Shaver and Shwartz, 2008).
Empirical Studies and How Romantic Love has Been Defined and Measured
Several empirical studies have been conducted to find out if romantic love is a basic emotion. One of the experiments evaluated whether the strength of romantic love is a deterrence function to this effect. This sought to establish a reason that would make one not feel the effect and investigated the impact of deterrents relevant to the stimulus that instigate emotion. Consistent with the emotional intensity theory, the findings of this empirical undertaking showed that a minor relevant partner flaw minimizes the positive affect towards a romantic partner, and an essential partner flaw maintained its intensity. The first study’s results were replicated in the second study. In the third study, a romantic negative impact in the form of anger at the romantic partner indicated the function of a relevant emotional characteristic on a positive partner (Robin, 2010).
In an empirical undertaking, 124 couples who were dating were tested for a discrete systems model of the functions of two emotional systems in romantic relationships: romantic love and anger. The results had numerous inconsistencies on the level of behavioural attributes and thus did not conclude on whether romantic love is a basic or non-basic emotion. Inconsistencies in characteristic romantic love and anger levels experienced in distinct relationships must track the specified, broadly autonomous fitness-related features of these relationships (Bookwala and Crote, 2009). Particularly in terms of romantic love and anger, findings in this study indicated the following:
i) Anger Emotions
Anger emotions function as representatives of premeditated interferences by an individual’s partner and operate to prepare and motivate individuals to respond adaptively to these intrusions. The researchers’ use of anger as a term points to relationship specific behaviours, summary conceptual of the characteristic anger levels that persons go through during conflicts with their partners. Strategic interferences within a relationship refer to behaviours done by an individual’s romantic partner; for instance, physical coercion, sexual rejection, and infidelity that block the attainment of an individual’s goals (Shaver and Shwartz, 2008).
Persons who are inclined to experience somehow strong anger feelings in conflict with their romantic partners must be concerned in relationships typical of high levels of tactical interference. They must also experience quite a frequent activation of behaviour modifiable processes that function to minimize these interferences, for instance, through energizing aggression to provocation sources. This assertion indicates that the relationship between partners directed aggression and strategic interference are mediated by feelings of anger (Bookwala and Crote, 2009).
ii) Romantic Love Emotions
Romantic love emotions inform individuals of general levels of premeditated facilitation by an individual’s romantic partner. Therefore, it prepares and stimulates an individual to respond adaptively to this facilitation. Love refers to a relational particular trait, an attitude held by an individual towards another individual, and involves predispositions to behave, think, and feel in certain ways towards another individual. However, in romantic love, these actions, thoughts, and feelings are inclined to entail strong dependent and affinitive needs, absorption, as well as a predisposition to help and exclusiveness. Strategic facilitation in a relationship is about the behaviours that are exhibited by ones romantic partner (Robin, 2010).
A Synthesis of Findings across Studies
Current Studies on romantic love are limited by using self-report measures of romantic love and anger; hence, they do not conclude whether it is a basic emotion or not. This is because there has not been found a valid method of measuring romantic love and anger. However, future researchers on this subject could gain a lot by collecting extra sources of data, including coding of expressed emotion, facial expressions and online psychological evaluations. This will be applicable during relational conflict episodes in order to verify whether it is a basic motion or not. It is critical that future researchers incorporate the discrete emotion model in their studies. However, they should use another cohort of the populations since the generalizability of past studies was limited because of using college age, a middle-class couple who were dating (Shaver and Shwartz, 2008).
There is a need for future studies to replicate the discrete model on the samples that differ on marital status, age, socioeconomic status, as well as culture. Even though the discrete model is particular about causal relationships, it does not conclude whether romantic love is a basic emotion or not. The causation direction should be subject for further research since there could be bidirectional underlying relations within the romantic love and anger emotional systems that could prove that it is indeed a basic emotion (Rusbult, 2009).
Proposed Study to verify if Romantic Love is a Basic Emotion
It is difficult for an effective phenomenon to be considered a basic emotion if it feels like another emotion. Previous studies that focused on the question of whether romantic love was a basic emotion or not did not provide conclusive answers. Given romantic love’s pleasant quality, it is feasible that individuals who report being in a romantic love relation will also point out that they feel joy. This could be the probable reason why researchers have not considered romantic love a basic emotion. Therefore, this research proposes to do an empirical study, which will employ stimuli that will selectively exclude romantic love and joy. This would provide a better avenue of verifying if indeed romantic love is a basic emotion (Ekman and Ellsworth, 2011).
Since joy is the opposite of anger, each of their two poles represents conflicting extremes of one process. In a different perspective, emotions such as romantic love and anger stem from distinct processes that restrain each other. Apart from that, circumstances that stimulate a certain polar emotion do not stimulate opposite emotions. Given this scenario, if stimuli that stimulate anger are added to a joyful stimulus, the contrast between romantic love and joy would be visible. This is the point that past studies missed and this research will address the issue in order to come up with sound conclusions about whether romantic love is indeed a basic emotion or not (Rusbult, 2009).
Conclusion
From the preceding information, it is clear that romantic love deserves to get more attention from basic emotions theorists than it has been the case so far. In spite of the fact that romantic love is high on the list of people’s daily interactions as a basic emotion, it has not yet been included in any of the official contemporary lists of basic emotions. Part of this confusion stems from the fact that longer lasting dispositional and relational forms as well as momentary surges characterize romantic love. However, these surges need to be re-evaluated because they are likely to qualify as one or even more basic emotions. Up to today, no empirical research has been done to verify this fact; hence, the need for more research on this subject matter to make concrete conclusions on whether romantic love is a basic emotion or not.
.
References
Allen, K. Calysin D.A., (2007). A Study of the interpersonal behaviours of batters. Journal of interpersonal violence.
Bookwala, J. & Crote, N.K. (2009). Love, Aggression and satisfaction in dating relations. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships.
Ekman, I?, Friesen, W. V., & Ellsworth, P. (2011). What emotion categories or dimensions can observers judge from facial behaviour? In P. Ekman (Ed.), Emotion in the human face (pp. 39-55). New York Cambridge University Press.
Robin, Z., (2010). The measurement of romantic love. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 16,265-273.
Rusbult, C.E., Johnson, D. (2009).Predicting Satisfaction and commitment in Adult romantic involvements: An assessment of the generalizability of the investment model. Social Psychology Quarterly,49, 81-89.
Shaver, P. & Shwartz, J., (2008). Emotion knowledge; Further exploration of a prototype approach.Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.53, 1072-1098.
Get Professional Assignment Help Cheaply
Are you busy and do not have time to handle your assignment? Are you scared that your paper will not make the grade? Do you have responsibilities that may hinder you from turning in your assignment on time? Are you tired and can barely handle your assignment? Are your grades inconsistent?
Whichever your reason is, it is valid! You can get professional academic help from our service at affordable rates. We have a team of professional academic writers who can handle all your assignments.
Why Choose Our Academic Writing Service?
- Plagiarism free papers
- Timely delivery
- Any deadline
- Skilled, Experienced Native English Writers
- Subject-relevant academic writer
- Adherence to paper instructions
- Ability to tackle bulk assignments
- Reasonable prices
- 24/7 Customer Support
- Get superb grades consistently
Online Academic Help With Different Subjects
Literature
Students barely have time to read. We got you! Have your literature essay or book review written without having the hassle of reading the book. You can get your literature paper custom-written for you by our literature specialists.
Finance
Do you struggle with finance? No need to torture yourself if finance is not your cup of tea. You can order your finance paper from our academic writing service and get 100% original work from competent finance experts.
Computer science
Computer science is a tough subject. Fortunately, our computer science experts are up to the match. No need to stress and have sleepless nights. Our academic writers will tackle all your computer science assignments and deliver them on time. Let us handle all your python, java, ruby, JavaScript, php , C+ assignments!
Psychology
While psychology may be an interesting subject, you may lack sufficient time to handle your assignments. Don’t despair; by using our academic writing service, you can be assured of perfect grades. Moreover, your grades will be consistent.
Engineering
Engineering is quite a demanding subject. Students face a lot of pressure and barely have enough time to do what they love to do. Our academic writing service got you covered! Our engineering specialists follow the paper instructions and ensure timely delivery of the paper.
Nursing
In the nursing course, you may have difficulties with literature reviews, annotated bibliographies, critical essays, and other assignments. Our nursing assignment writers will offer you professional nursing paper help at low prices.
Sociology
Truth be told, sociology papers can be quite exhausting. Our academic writing service relieves you of fatigue, pressure, and stress. You can relax and have peace of mind as our academic writers handle your sociology assignment.
Business
We take pride in having some of the best business writers in the industry. Our business writers have a lot of experience in the field. They are reliable, and you can be assured of a high-grade paper. They are able to handle business papers of any subject, length, deadline, and difficulty!
Statistics
We boast of having some of the most experienced statistics experts in the industry. Our statistics experts have diverse skills, expertise, and knowledge to handle any kind of assignment. They have access to all kinds of software to get your assignment done.
Law
Writing a law essay may prove to be an insurmountable obstacle, especially when you need to know the peculiarities of the legislative framework. Take advantage of our top-notch law specialists and get superb grades and 100% satisfaction.
What discipline/subjects do you deal in?
We have highlighted some of the most popular subjects we handle above. Those are just a tip of the iceberg. We deal in all academic disciplines since our writers are as diverse. They have been drawn from across all disciplines, and orders are assigned to those writers believed to be the best in the field. In a nutshell, there is no task we cannot handle; all you need to do is place your order with us. As long as your instructions are clear, just trust we shall deliver irrespective of the discipline.
Are your writers competent enough to handle my paper?
Our essay writers are graduates with bachelor's, masters, Ph.D., and doctorate degrees in various subjects. The minimum requirement to be an essay writer with our essay writing service is to have a college degree. All our academic writers have a minimum of two years of academic writing. We have a stringent recruitment process to ensure that we get only the most competent essay writers in the industry. We also ensure that the writers are handsomely compensated for their value. The majority of our writers are native English speakers. As such, the fluency of language and grammar is impeccable.
What if I don’t like the paper?
There is a very low likelihood that you won’t like the paper.
Reasons being:
- When assigning your order, we match the paper’s discipline with the writer’s field/specialization. Since all our writers are graduates, we match the paper’s subject with the field the writer studied. For instance, if it’s a nursing paper, only a nursing graduate and writer will handle it. Furthermore, all our writers have academic writing experience and top-notch research skills.
- We have a quality assurance that reviews the paper before it gets to you. As such, we ensure that you get a paper that meets the required standard and will most definitely make the grade.
In the event that you don’t like your paper:
- The writer will revise the paper up to your pleasing. You have unlimited revisions. You simply need to highlight what specifically you don’t like about the paper, and the writer will make the amendments. The paper will be revised until you are satisfied. Revisions are free of charge
- We will have a different writer write the paper from scratch.
- Last resort, if the above does not work, we will refund your money.
Will the professor find out I didn’t write the paper myself?
Not at all. All papers are written from scratch. There is no way your tutor or instructor will realize that you did not write the paper yourself. In fact, we recommend using our assignment help services for consistent results.
What if the paper is plagiarized?
We check all papers for plagiarism before we submit them. We use powerful plagiarism checking software such as SafeAssign, LopesWrite, and Turnitin. We also upload the plagiarism report so that you can review it. We understand that plagiarism is academic suicide. We would not take the risk of submitting plagiarized work and jeopardize your academic journey. Furthermore, we do not sell or use prewritten papers, and each paper is written from scratch.
When will I get my paper?
You determine when you get the paper by setting the deadline when placing the order. All papers are delivered within the deadline. We are well aware that we operate in a time-sensitive industry. As such, we have laid out strategies to ensure that the client receives the paper on time and they never miss the deadline. We understand that papers that are submitted late have some points deducted. We do not want you to miss any points due to late submission. We work on beating deadlines by huge margins in order to ensure that you have ample time to review the paper before you submit it.
Will anyone find out that I used your services?
We have a privacy and confidentiality policy that guides our work. We NEVER share any customer information with third parties. Noone will ever know that you used our assignment help services. It’s only between you and us. We are bound by our policies to protect the customer’s identity and information. All your information, such as your names, phone number, email, order information, and so on, are protected. We have robust security systems that ensure that your data is protected. Hacking our systems is close to impossible, and it has never happened.
How our Assignment Help Service Works
1. Place an order
You fill all the paper instructions in the order form. Make sure you include all the helpful materials so that our academic writers can deliver the perfect paper. It will also help to eliminate unnecessary revisions.
2. Pay for the order
Proceed to pay for the paper so that it can be assigned to one of our expert academic writers. The paper subject is matched with the writer’s area of specialization.
3. Track the progress
You communicate with the writer and know about the progress of the paper. The client can ask the writer for drafts of the paper. The client can upload extra material and include additional instructions from the lecturer. Receive a paper.
4. Download the paper
The paper is sent to your email and uploaded to your personal account. You also get a plagiarism report attached to your paper.
PLACE THIS ORDER OR A SIMILAR ORDER WITH US TODAY AND GET A PERFECT SCORE!!!
